Foresight Report, London, United Kingdom

Back to the future

‘Orwellian’ control for traffic

A UK ‘think tank’ has produced a radical report on the future of transport in the next 50 years. UK Transport minister Stephen Ladyman said, “We can either stumble into the future and hope it just turns out right or we can try to shape it.” The report, by the Foresight Programme envisages the use of technology to provide driverless transport within an ‘all seeing all knowing transport network’. Vehicles will have devices called Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags which transmit information when they pass a reader. The principle being that knowing where the other vehicles are, will enable the transport network to optimise flow and reduce congestion.